Development of Wanichnukul School, 1924-2020

Abstract

          The purposes of this research were: 1) to study the history of the Chinese community in Surin; 2) to study the development of the relationships between Vanichnukul School and the Chinese community in Mueng Surin; and 3) to provide learning management guidelines for preparing a handbook of the development of Vanichnukul School to use in the learning area of Social Studies, Religion and Culture learning specifically to the Strand of History. Data were collected through a historical methodology from secondary sources, participatory     observations, focused-group discussions, and in-depth interviews. The target group of this study consisted of community leaders, qualified persons, and community members. The collected data was analyzed and discussed descriptively.

            The study found that: 1) Most of the Chinese communities in Mueng Surin primarily came from Shantou Subdistrict, Chaozhou City, Guangdong Province in China. During that era, Thailand had a demand for Chinese labor in its economic processes, leading to Chinese immigrants coming to Thailand and developing themselves as economic entrepreneurs within Thailand. When those Chinese immigrants had an increasing number of children, they recognized the importance of education for Thai-Chinese children. Consequently, they established the first Chinese language school in Mueng Suring, named “U-Xia School”, in 1924 (2467 B.E.). 2) The development of the relationship between Vanichnukul School and the Chinese communities in Mueng Surin was divided into 5 eras including: the 1st era – Foundation and Establishment, the 2nd era – Control Period of Chinese Language Teaching, the 3rd era – Reformation of School Management System, the 4th era - Decline of Chinese Schools, and the 5th era – Global Development of Education in Chinese Schools. 3)    According to the learning management guidelines for preparing a handbook of the development of Vanichnukul School, the study showed that there is a variety of learning resources within the school that should be developed and promoted to serve as historical education learning resources. This could be integrated into the learning management process by creating a handbook for community history studies or pamphlets regarding the learning resources that can be applied to the learning management activities in the learning area of Social Studies, Religion and Culture specifically to the Strand 4 : History (Standard SO 4.1 and Standard SO 4.2).